Only In Dreams
by Elsha Rhosyn
Summary: El MWPP/LJ fic from alternating points of view, Lily and James both. Humor, biting political comentary, you name it. PG13 bc/ British politics, including racism and classism, a little dark stuff, and some cursing. *UPDATE*CH. 2 AND REVISED CH. 1 NOW UP*
1. Converging Parallels

Author's note: And so it begins, another MWPP/LJ fic. Yeah, it's been done to death, but I couldn't care less. I don't know where things will lead, I don't know if anyone (including myself) will come out alive, I don't even know if it will ever end. But, as God (The Goddess, Buddha, Krishna, Allah) as my witness, I have to write it. It is... my destiny. And also, yes I do mean "barred" owl, and not barn. I like the species better than the usual snowy and barn everyone else uses.   
  
Also, if you read this when it first got put up, there are a few minor edits to make some problem sentences flow that I added when I put up Chapter Two.  
  
Disclaimer: All characters created by Joanne K. Rowling belong to her, and I make no claims whatsoever to own them. However, I do think I created Nan and Stella, even though Nan will never truly belong to anyone but Nan. Just don't go trying to steal her off for yourself, as she will probably hurt you worse by herself than anything I could ever dream up. And really, anyone who'd steal Stell' is just a bad, awful person.  
  
  


**Chapter One**

  
  


Converging Parallels

  
  
A light rain, really more mist-like in quality than anything else, had begun to fall by the time James Potter stepped through the barrier and onto Platform Nine-and-Three Quarters. He ran his fingers over his head in an attempt to remove some of the excess water (and make his wiry brush of black hair lie flat, though he knew that was hopeless). He pushed his cart off to the side, out of the way of the entrance and looked back over his shoulder at the barrier with mock impatience.   
  
"Sirius Black, if you don't hurry up everyone will miss the train because you're blocking the only door," he chided in a piercing falsetto.   
  
"Oh, forgive me _Mother Dear!_" came the lilting reply through the arch. A moment later, Sirius Black materialized, carrying two cages and wearing a marked look of melodramatic suffering on his face. "Here," he said, "take this idiot of an owl before I'm _forced_ to chuck it under the train." He covered his eyes with the back of his hand and with a flourish held out the larger of the two cages.   
  
James rolled his eyes and took it from Sirius. The owl in it seemed to have hooked one of its talons around the top bar of the cage and was now happily swinging upside-down. He hastily unstuck the claw, which sent the owl tumbling rapidly, though good-naturedly, to the bottom of the cage. James fondly scratched the back of its head. He set the cage atop the trunk he was pushing and started toward the train.   
  
"How can he help being a little eccentric?" James asked Sirius as they strolled through the crowds of people swirling around the train platform. "You'd probably be a little loopy too, if you'd spent as much time with Nan as he has. Howard's just had the misfortune of being imprinted with human qualities that aren't exactly... 'the norm'."   
  
"Boys, the only reason there is to continue living on this earth is to bring something new to the world. If that makes every artist, poet, musician, freethinker, and me eccentric, then I really couldn't care less." A woman with white hair sticking out all around her head in every direction possible and wearing a sort of wrap-around dress of a sort of gray-purple-blue-greenish shade ("Wearing clothing of only one color is like having a personality with only one quality to it; both are genuinely boring.") came striding through the barrier pushing Sirius's trunk and taking no notice of who had to jump out of her way as she strode along to catch up with them. A few feet from the train she wheeled the cart to a stop and turned to the two boys.   
  
"Well, since we're finally here," she said, "we can rest a minute. Now, was there any last minute advice I wanted to give you two?"   
  
She stood a moment chewing on the end of her thumb, obviously scanning her memory.   
  
"Oh, that was it. Now, one, I want owls. I really would rather hear of your exploits-"   
  
"What, us have exploits?" Sirius interrupted, giving her an innocent look so as to suggest he had never even _heard_ the word exploit.   
  
"Oh, come boy, if I thought for a minute you two together would be perfect angels the whole time you were at school I would be _exceedingly_ worried. But, as I was saying, I would rather hear of your exploits from you in their all great glorious detail than from the dreadfully boring and unimaginative teacher who will most likely be giving you detention for them."   
  
"Okay Nan, can do," assured James. "Of course, I'll probably use up more paper than all the other first years put together if we're going to tell you about _all_ of them."   
  
"Well, in that case, just tell me about the enormously brilliant ones." She smiled and paused again. "What else? Oh, in the charms corridor there's a loose brick with a cavity behind it that's very useful for hiding things. Always remember not to walk through any of the ghosts, as it's not only cold, but very impolite. And please," she took on a grave look. "_Please_ don't go into the forest by yourselves. I know you think highly of your skills as rule breakers, but it really is dangerous, especially at night, and it's no place for you to be for any reason."   
  
They both nodded their heads soundlessly. A shrill whistle sounded from the direction of the train.   
  
"Well," she said, her tone reverting back to its normal level of gaiety. "I suppose that's all. You two had better get on then, before they leave you behind."   
  
"Alright Nan," James gave her a quick hug. "I'll send you an owl tonight, after everything, and tell you which house I got and all that. Though we both already know of course."   
  
"Don't be too sure about things like that, James my boy. Both my parents were in Ravenclaw, but I was a Gryffindor. And your mother's brother was a Hufflepuff, of all things! You really never do know. Still, I don't think you two will have much trouble getting into Gryffindor; I have a fairly good guess that they'd be nuts to put you anywhere else."   
  
"Alright then Nan," said James stepping up onto the train. "We'll see you when we see you!"   
  
"Goodbye boys," said Nan. She seemed about to turn and leave, but called out again, directing her halloo to Sirius this time.   
  
"Sirius dear, hold on just a minute."   
  
He turned around to face her.   
  
"You know your mother would have come today if she could, don't you? Because I won't have you go off thinking she didn't try."   
  
Sirius gave her the sort of half-hearted grin he always gave people when they said this sort of thing. "I know Nan. She was busy, it wasn't her fault." He knew Nan could hear the disappointment in his voice anyway, no matter how he disguised it. Nan always knew things like that. It was one of both her best and worst qualities at once. However, she'd never been one to offer advice where it wasn't wanted, so she said nothing more about it.  
  
"All right Sirius, I'll see you again later this year then. Have fun, and," she gave him a wink, "try not to get caught."   
  
Sirius smiled at her and headed off into the train feeling considerably better. That was another good thing about Nan; she never left a conversation to hang dismally in the air. He hurried off to catch up with James. They had to start planning what should go in that loose brick space soon. He wondered if they'd think to search the first years' luggage for contraband items when they arrived...   
  
On the platform Nan watched as the train chugged soundlessly out of sight, until only a thin plume of smoke that hung in the air was the only thing left to give the impression of a Hogwarts Express at all. "Well," she murmured to herself, "I'll be blown if there don't go the most detentions Hogwarts could ever hope to see."   
  
  
  
  
When Lily Evans had gotten the letter, she'd felt as if every hope and prayer she'd ever even chanced to dream had been answered. There _had_ been something different about her, it wasn't just her head. It was the best feeling in the world for her, the one of being proven _right_. Right about now though, she was feeling like she'd rather be back in her old school with those girls knocking her about and everyone calling her "Little Lil" like she wasn't a proper human with feelings than standing here, on the brink of something she knew could change everything she'd ever thought. The Hogwarts Express was looming huge and menacing before her, like a great beast waiting to carry her off to its lair. In a way this struck her as funny, as she usually liked looking at old things; antique frames and the cracked sepia toned photos she found in the attic of her house back in Liverpool. And this train was certainly an antique. One of those old ones that shot steam out the top and gave a whistle you never heard anywhere else. Funny, because if she wasn't here facing the unknown all by herself, surrounded by people who had known about magic their whole lives, she'd probably've been having a grand time.   
  
It wasn't as though she was supposed to be alone today. Her parents had brought her to the station, were about to get out of the car along with her and see her to the train, when Petunia, her sister and only sibling, had started to complain loudly that she felt sick and needed to go home immediately. Her parents genuinely thought she was sick, and had apologized to Lily nonstop, saying they really had take Petunia home, she sounded so bad. But as Lily was pulling one of her bags out of the back seat, Petunia had leaned over and hissed at her,"Yeah, sick of _you_." Lily had quickly hugged her parents through the windows and bolted off, making a wide trail behind her as she dragged her trunk through the gravel parking lot and hoping they wouldn't see the tears streaming down her cheeks.   
  
A good cry in the ladies room later, she had emerged no worse for the wear. A man standing by the barrier had helped her get through to the platform, but now that she was here, a trace of panic was starting to creep back up into her mind. She was considering just turning around, walking right back through the barrier and away into London by herself, when an elderly woman pushing a cart nearly ran over her. She'd jumped aside quickly enough, but it almost proved too much for her to bear. She'd grabbed her trunk and turned to the barrier, intent on just getting away, anywhere but here. That was when it hit her.  
  
Why should _she_ have to go?  
  
She had a right to be here. She was magic (at least the school had said so), and she was a person just like any of them. They didn't have anything to hold over her head, so why should she let them push her around? The answer was she shouldn't, and she wasn't going to. And anyone who thought they were going to was in for a nasty shock.  
  
And so resolving, Lily Evans grabbed the handle on her trunk, turned on her heel, and strode off toward the train, having finally made what would prove to be one of the most important decisions of her life.   
  


***

  
James stared down the train's corridor, trying to decide which compartment to hide from Sirius in. The first one he tried was full of giggling girls, much too annoying for someone to hide in properly. The next contained a bunch of surly looking boys, probably Slytherins, who glared at him so angrily when he opened the door he hastily shut it again. He was just about to go check the other end of the train when Howard let out a soft hoot in the opposite direction.   
  
"Trying to sneak off and leave me, were you?" Sirius grinned at James. "Come on, let's go find somewhere to sit."   
  
"Okay, but you have to open the doors. Here," James pointed at the door across from the one he'd tried last, "check that one."   
  
"Oh, I'm sure," Sirius retorted. "There's probably some huge man-eating monster in there. I say this one." He grabbed the handle to the angry Slytherins' compartment.   
  
James was just about to step back and take in all the hilarity of his joke when a noise from behind startled him. Sirius's hand dropped from the door and he turned, James following suit.   
  
Two practical boulders of human beings were standing at the end of the aisle over a third person very much smaller and fairer than themselves. The noise had come from the cage the smaller boy was carrying, which had fallen to the ground and banged against the wall. The owl inside it was screeching hysterically.   
  
"Hey you little sneak," the larger of the two lumps was saying, "what's wrong? Not gonna say hello to your old neighbors? We used to be such good friends back then. What happened?" The two boys sniggered unpleasantly.   
  
"Leave me alone Avery, you know I'm not worth bothering with," the small boy said.   
  
"Correction," said the second boy, "we enjoy bothering you for _exactly_ that reason. No one cares about you."   
  
"Come on Nott, I haven't got any money or anything. Just let me go." A note of panic was becoming apparent in the small boy's voice.   
  
James had been summing up the situation up to now, but this seemed like the correct moment to take some sort of action. It was apparent these boys were going to beat the smaller one to a bloody pulp if he or Sirius didn't do something. He was just about to yell at the one called Avery when someone did it for him. And it wasn't Sirius.   
  


***

  
Lily stood in the train's lavatory, looking at herself in the mirror. No, it wasn't her imagination; she looked different. Well, maybe that wasn't entirely true; her hair was still dusky red, still pulled back in the ponytail she'd put it in that morning, the few stray strands not long enough to stay up falling over her eyes. But now they weren't Mum's eyes, they weren't Dad's eyes. They'd always been Mum's or Dad's, the unstriking green, almost dull really, everyone in the family had. But they weren't anymore. These were someone else entirely's eyes. These were Stella's.   
  
Stella had been tall, Stella had been dark. Stella had been lovely, had been smart, had been funny. Stella had been everything Lily had ever thought a person could be, but most of all, Stella had been her sister. She'd always been there with advice, had always been protective when she needed to be, always compassionate when it was wanted. She'd been the bridge between Lily and Petunia, helping them to get along better and understand each other when they'd started bickering constantly.   
  
Lily had loved Stella more than anyone, because she'd been more than her sister, she'd been the only friend Lily had most of the time. So when Lily had gotten the letter, of course she'd wanted to tell her.   
  
It had been a beautiful day in July, the sun shining brightly while tiny sheep-like clouds sailed through the sky. It seemed all the more expansive that day, simply filling with the happiness one couldn't help but feel on a day like that day. Lily had found the letter addressed to her in the mailbox, had opened it and read the words on the funny light brown crispy paper, hadn't believed a bit of it at first, then believed it all in a great rush, like a tidal wave overtaking a village in the depths of an 11 year drought. She had run hollering into the house, waving the letter and jumping up and down in front of her mother till she'd had to collapse in a chair and hand her mother the letter breathlessly. Her mother screamed and hugged her, had called her father at his office, pulled him out of a meeting just to tell him. She'd started to dial the number of Stella's work, but Lily had stopped her, saying she wanted to tell her herself.   
  
Stella had worked at a record shop round a few corners from the house on Sutcliffe Street. It didn't take Lily very long dashing through the alley's and back gardens to arrive across the street from the shop. She had looked up to see Stella exiting through the front door, apparently coming home for a lunch break. Seeing Lily she'd waved merrily, glanced up the street, and started across to meet her.  
  
That's when the roaring of the engine had split the summer air, the car had come screaming around the corner, and Stella had died. And Lily had run into the street, fallen to the ground next to her, had screamed. Had made the sky go hollow in a single breath.  
  
  
  
  
Nothing had mattered the rest of July. It didn't matter that they threw the drunk man who'd hit her in jail forever, it didn't matter that the service was lovely, and that Stella would have liked it; it didn't matter that the sun no longer seemed bright and the grass green.   
  
By the beginning of August, however, only one thing mattered: it had been her fault. She'd been the one who'd distracted Stella. Had she not been there, Stella might've seen the car and jumped out of the way. Lily blamed herself. Petunia blamed Lily too, but she also blamed the letter. Lily had sat in the attic the afternoon of the funeral, crying softly among the boxes and old mirrors and the dressmaker's dummy in the corner, when she'd heard Petunia shout up the stairs, "None of this would have happened if you weren't such a freak Lily, and you know it!" She'd sunk into a hole, it seemed, and she couldn't do anything but sink deeper.   
  
  
  
  
But by the middle of August, a light had appeared out of the consuming sadness of her sister's death: school. Ever contrary to Petunia, Lily didn't blame the letter for anything, because she knew Stella'd have been happy for her. And to think that she'd soon be able to go and leave all the sadness and hurt her house held was like a comfort no well wisher or relative could give. So when the family had set off for London she was feeling better about the situation than she had been .  
  
Diagon Alley had been so overwhelming for her parents and her sister they'd ended up staying inside the Leaky Cauldron, leaving Lily free to explore the shops by herself. She'd skirted some of the noisier, more crowded ones, not wanting to be around that many people, instead sticking to arcane book shops full of volumes containing wizarding history, and even chancing a few visits to The Magical Menagerie, where she looked at every owl six times before finally asking her parents if she could have one. To her suprise they'd agreed quite easily, and she'd left the store with a large barred owl with liquid black eyes and a soft voice the last full day of their stay in London.   
  
Lily had wanted to stay at the Leaky Cauldron, but her mother had insisted on staying with a friend who she'd known in grade school. She'd run off by herself right after they'd arrived on Thursday evening. The woman, her name was Delilah or something like that, had greeted them with a cordial "Oh you poor things!" and proceeded to talk endlessly about how shocked she'd been at the news, how she disapproved of the drink, how she thought they must be in an awful way. Truthfully, Lily _hadn't_ been in an awful way till the woman started talking about it. She had hastily stood up and announced she was going for a walk. She got as far as the beginnings of Hyde Park, where she'd climbed a tree and watched the sun go down, wishing Stella could be there.   
  
  
  
But now she was... or at least it seemed like it, seeing those eyes in the mirror. Stella was gone, she knew that, but maybe, just perhaps, not as gone as she thought.   
  
Quite suddenly her contemplations were interrupted by a noise from down the hall. At first Lily stopped, thinking it might just have been a regular train noise, but the image of the eyes and the promise she'd made herself forced the door open all on their own and draged Lily along behind them out into the corridor.   
  
Two boys were standing against a door to the left about 6 feet away from her, looking farther down the way. The objects of their attention seemed to be two large boys standing over a smaller blonde one who sat on the floor practically cowering at their feet. She couldn't hear what they were saying too well, but by the look on the smaller boy's face, this wasn't a pleasant little chat. She felt anger welling behind her eyes as she watched, and it exploded from her lips before she knew what she was doing.  
  
"What in bloody hell do you think you're doing?!?"   
  
_"Such language Lily!"_ Mum gasped in her head.   
  
All of the boys, including the ones by the door,realized she was there and turned to look at her. She strode down the hallway with steps three times larger than she usually took and stopped in front of the largest boy.   
  
"Leave him alone."   
  
The boy looked at her like he had never been talked rudely to in his life, and maybe he hadn't, but he regained his composure almost almost before he lost it. He looked her up with apparent disgust. "Shove off you little mudblood, 'fore that little mouth of yours proves a bad thing," he told her. But he wouldn't meet Lily's blazing eyes when he said it.   
  
Lily swung round to face the blonde boy on the floor. She held out her hand to him, but a bigger hand gripped her arm, hard.   
  
"I said-" started the large boy, hanging over her, but he never finished. Lily swung her fist at him so hard and so fast not even a gazelle could have moved in time. Lily's hand came away bloody, as did Avery's nose.   
  
The boy let go of her and stumbled back, bleeding all over the place and completely stunned with shock. So did his friend. So incredibly unthinkable was what had just happened to them that they could only stand and watch as the girl, this little redhead with green, green eyes, hoist up the small boy and his cage and steer him into an empty compartment, closely tailed by the two boys who had been standing behind them, watching the morning's odd events unfold.   
  
  
  
  
  
Okay, next we'll be getting aquainted. Or maybe we'll be having another series of confusing flashbacks. You'll just have to come and see...  
  
Review, and I will grant you three wishes*.   
  
  
  
*Wishes must be as follows: 1. I wish Elsha would write more chapters of this story. 2. I wish I could review more of Elsha's work. 3. I wish I could go to http://www.geocities.com/spellotape10 as well as http://dari.topcities.com to appease Elsha's need for hits (though at those places her name is Adrian, for _some_ reason.) 


	2. Friends and Neighbors

Authors Note: Well, after what appears to have been a particularly long hiatus, I'm back, and raring to go. Of course, I'll now probably get this chapter done and not write another till Christmas, and it'd be none of my fault. I get busier by the minute these days. AP classes don't help either. Still, you all love me so much you'd be willing to wait, wouldn't you (_**Wouldn't you?!?!**_)? Also, any grammatical or spelling errors you should happen to notice are intentional. That's right, I _never_ make mistakes.  
  
Disclaimer: Everything that didn't come straight out of my head belongs to Joanne Rowling, and you'd all do good to remember that. However, characters I've created are mine, and unless you have permission from me (and I'd guess them as well; they aren't slaves for me to sell and loan about) they shouldn't be showing up anywhere else, because that would be plagiarism, which is illegal, as well as bad form.  
  
  


**Chapter Two**

  
  


Friends And Neighbors

  
  
Lily slid open the compartment door and sat the blonde boy down on a seat. She handed his owl back to him, which he promptly set down on the floor and forgot about. He stared at Lily with a look no short of awe.  
  
"You hit Avery," he said in quiet reverence.  
  
"Yes," she said.  
  
"And he didn't hit you back."  
  
Lily smiled good naturedly, knowing it would be best to humor someone who had recently had a near death experience. "Well, I shouldn't think he would. Just imagine the trouble he'd be in if he was caught beating up defenseless little girls." She gave him a little grin, which he didn't see or notice either one.  
  
"I guess that wouldn't have been a smart thing for him to do." He nodded to himself, sat back in his seat, and proceeded to stare off into the air directly in front of him.  
  
Lily peered at him inquiringly. "Mind if I ask you who those two were?"  
  
"The boys next door," he said, almost like he was telling himself, too. Lily wasn't sure what this meant, or what to say to it, so she (quite sagely) didn't say a thing. However, before Lily could decide what to do next, the sound of the door sliding back on its tracks announced the arrival of someone else in the compartment. She craned her head around and saw the two boys who had been standing in the corridor watching the little incident enter. They looked nearly as stunned as the boy.   
  
"Um, are you... uh... okay?" asked one of them, looking at Lily in a flabbergasted sort of way. He had fairly neat black hair that fell to the top of his ears, and was clearly trying to be as gentlemanly as possible, given the fact she had just beat in the nose of a person twice the size of either of them.  
  
"Oh yes, I'm fine," she said pertly, "but maybe you should be asking... er, excuse me, but what was your name?" She turned to the blonde boy, still speaking as gently as possible.  
  
"Peter," he replied, showing no sign of ending his staring match with the wall. "Peter Pettigrew."  
  
"Yes, maybe you should be asking _Peter_ here that question though." Lily cocked her head and glared accusingly at the two of them. "You were both standing there; why didn't you help him, huh? What, did you think it was funny, watching someone get scared out of their wits?"  
  
"Hey now, see here," said the second boy. He had black hair too, but it was shorter. Or maybe it just seemed that way, since it stood up in every direction. "I was just about to say something when you came along, and I never got a chance. I was _trying_ to think of a way to get him out of the situation without getting anyone _hurt_, come to mention it." He gave her a glare quite equally accusing.  
  
Lily started to say something rather rude, but was fortunately interrupted by the door opening yet again. A boy with light brown hair and a slightly gaunt face looked in on them.  
  
"Um," he said, "I'm sorry if I'm interrupting anything, but I was just walking to the lavatory and I noticed that it looks like someone's been murdered in front of your-"  
  
"Lavatory!" Lily gasped, smacking herself in the head with the heel of her hand. She spun around as if she couldn't decide which direction the door was in and finally sprinted out down the corridor.  
  
They all watched her run and turn a corner out of sight, presumably into the bathroom.  
  
"Wow," said the newcomer, "she certainly was in a hurry."  
  
When she returned a few minutes later, all the boys were talking animatedly. They quieted down as she shut the door.  
  
"So, have fun did you?" asked the rude boy with messy hair.  
  
"For your infor_mation_," she said, keeping her voice as calm as possible for someone considerably annoyed by many things at once, "I left my trunk in the bathroom and had to go get it." As if to punctuate the sentence, she set the trunk on the floor, probably a little harder than necessary.  
  
"Well excuse me then," he replied (probably a little more sarcastic than necessary), "but why didn't you just leave it in the storage compartment to begin with?"  
  
"Because," fumed Lily, "I didn't want anything to happen to Lechuza." She began to hastily undo the clasps on her trunk.  
  
"You named you trunk Lechuza?" asked the brown haired boy, who was completely bewildered by the hostility that had flared up so suddenly. Hadn't he just been having a pleasant conversation?  
  
"Oh of course not," she exasperatedly. "I named _Lechuza_ Lechuza." She undid the last clasp and threw back the lid of Pandora's Box.  
  
An owl erupted out of the trunk in a flurry of brown and white feathers, tearing around the compartment and abruptly taking everyone's attentions for itself. Probably an accident, but whether it was a conscious decision on Lily's part or not, it did prevent her from smacking the new boy a good one. It was two or three minutes, 10 or 11 flesh wounds, and a hundred or so curse words before anyone was settled again.  
  
"Okay," said the boy with longer hair when Lily had finally managed to get a hold of the owl and sit down. "Obviously things have gotten off on... well, on some sort of foot. Maybe I should introduce everyone. You already met Peter, as we know all to well." He smirked a little and pointed to Peter as he said it. "Over here, who came just before you left, is Remus Lupin, as he told us already." He did a little hand motion as he spoke that seemed to perfectly (and politely) convey, '_Us meaning everyone but you_'.  
  
"This is my 'comrade-at-arms' James Potter." He nodded to the boy with messy hair. He tried his best to look amiable, which was encouraging, she supposed.  
  
"And I'm Sirius Black." He smiled at her.  
  
It dawned on Lily that something kind of... _important_ was happening, though she didn't know why.   
  
"I'm Lily," she said, glancing around at them all. None of them seemed too dangerous, she thought. "Lily Evans."  
  


***

  
"Geeze this is heavy," panted Sirius. "What d'you think she's got in here?"  
  
"Rocks probably. She seemed loopy enough for it to me."  
  
James and Sirius were walking along the train platform of Hogsmeade Station, trying to find the storage compartment of the train. Sirius had _kindly_ volunteered to take Lily's trunk (including Lechuza) and Peter's owl off so they could be taken up to the castle with everything else. The fact that it had rained and the cement platform was slippery made it all the more precarious balancing two cages with three occupants on the trunk between them.  
  
"She's not loopy; you're just saying that 'cause she got all snappy at you and implied that you purposely didn't help that Peter kid." Sirius rolled his eyes.  
  
"Hey, I told you I was thinking of a plan!"  
  
"Yeah, I know. Still doesn't change the fact that she said it. She took a swing at that big bloke's nose _and_ your pride, saying you were less honorable than you think you are. Plus, you were afraid she'd take one of her non-metaphorical swings at you if you got her mad enough. That's why you're helping now; pride and fear. Though you shouldn't be too worried about it. Most people run on those two things alone most of the time, and they get along just fine." Sirius gave him knowing sort of look.  
  
James muttered something indiscriminate about psychology books that Sirius couldn't catch, but didn't say anything more on the subject. Instead, he decided to focus on carrying the trunk. It was hard enough to hold on to it without conversations. After a bit though, he spoke again:  
  
"Hey Siri, what do you reckon the sorting'll be? I mean, what will we have to do?" James had been wondering about this since they'd gotten on the train. He knew he'd heard people talk about some kind of ceremony, but he'd never heard exactly what it involved.  
  
"Oh, I don't know," said Sirius. "They'll probably just ask us a load of questions and tabulate scores or something."  
  
"Tabulate scores?" James looked up at Sirius incredulously. "Okay then, if you say so. I guess I'd just expected something a little more, well, magical."  
  
"Hey, I don't know. Nobody ever told me." He jerked his head towards the end of the train. "Look, here's the luggage car."  
  
They handed over the cages and the trunk to a man who was unloading the other baggage. As they headed back to the front of the train they heard someone calling out over the crowd:   
  
"Firs' years! This way, all yeh firs' years!" A man taller (and wilder looking) than anyone James had ever seen was motioning for them to follow him. They obeyed, of course, but followed a few good paces back. His enormous boots looked quite capable of accidentally mangaling the uncareful bystanders foot . No harm in being careful.  
  
When the group of first years had been adequately assembled, they followed him away from the station through a stand of trees and soon came to the edges of a lake. Across it, the school was clearly visible against the night sky. The lights from the windows shone out of the darkness, their shimmering effect enhanced by the water in the air. High turrets pierced the dark clouds, glistening in the light from the waxing moon. The slightly moving lakewater reflected the scene. All in all it was quite a magnificent first sight of Hogwarts, as far as first sights of Hogwarts go.  
  
James stared, as awestruck as anyone else.  
  
After a few seconds of silence, Sirius finally found a few appropriate words:  
  
"Well would you look at the size of that?" He gave a sort of reverse whistle. "I reckon Dumbledore himself hasn't seen half the rooms in there."  
  
"I bet there's no one alive whose seen a _quarter_ of them," said James, regaining himself.  
  
"Well then," said Sirius, lowering his voice, "I guess we'll just have to do something about that, won't we?" He gave James a devilish grin.  
  
Silent pacts were made.  
  
"Alright yeh all, listen up for a moment please!" the large man addressed them. "My name's Rubeus Hagrid, and I'm the Keeper of The Grounds and Keys at Hogwarts." (He seemed quite proud of the title; you could hear the capitol letters when he said it). "In a minute we're gonna sail over the lake, and so that you know right away, don't lean over the edge. Some things in there tain't as friendly as the giant squid, if yeh know what I mean." He laughed to himself.  
  
They didn't, of course, know what he ment. It didn't really matter though; the general message was understood.  
  
Peter and Remus managed to claim an empty boat, and Sirius hopped in after them. James was just about to pile in too when Mr. Hagrid called out:  
  
"Oh, and please, only three to a boat. They'll capsize if you put more'n that in one of em."  
  
James shrugged at the other three and walked off to find another boat. The only one that wasn't full contained, of course, Lily Evans.  
  
"Well well well," she said, clucking her tongue.  
  
"Oh, give it a rest." He didn't look at her as he got in.  
  
"Fine, fine," she said silkily, and turned silently to stare out at the lake as the boats pushed off. She seemed happy enough just to look at the water as they glided along.  
  
James stared off defiantly in the opposite direction. He wasn't going to play up nice to her if she clearly disliked him so much...  
  
However, if she didn't like him, this did leave an interesting option open, the only option left for her the way James saw things. It was time to mess with her fragile little psyche. _How_ was the question.  
  
He reckoned she must be muggle born, as she had asked Sirius a few questions during the ride about magic and the school and stuff like that. Taking this into account, she probably didn't know much about Hogwarts. And if she didn't know much about Hogwarts, there would be no way she'd know what the sorting was...  
  
"So Lily," he said, in a voice controlled to suggest only mild interest and slight inquisitiveness (a talent Nan said he'd inherited from her), "are you nervous about the sorting?"  
  
She turned around, a bit startled to see he was talking to her again so suddenly. "Maybe," she said. "Why?"  
  
"Oh, it's nothing. I just heard it can be challenging if you don't know any magic."  
  
"Well, of course. That's what I heard too," she said, nodding along in agreement. "In fact, after I heard it I researched some of the books at a store in Diagon Alley. I've got the spells I need now, so I think I'll do alright."  
  
"I... me too!" James stuttered. This wasn't happening right. "Well, see, actually, since... since I've been around wizards so long, I didn't need to learn anything."  
  
"Yeah," said Lily eagerly, "you wouldn't need any help at _all_. Hey, maybe you could even give _me_ a few pointers!" She smiled at him; a shark smile.   
  
_"Oh God,"_ he thought, _"I've been had."_ James looked wildly around, trying to find some way out of his own ruse. He sighted Sirius's boat across the water about 5 yards away.  
  
"Look," he yelled, "there's Sirius! See him, over there." He pointed at the boat. "Oi, Siri! Over here!"  
  
They could vaguely see Sirius in the boat. He looked confused.  
  
"_What_ James?" he asked.  
  
This was not the response James had hoped for. He reached blindly for something to say, anything.  
  
"Uh... well... do you have any gum?!?" he yelled.  
  
Sirius looked genuinely concerned for James's mental health. "No! What are you talking abou-"  
  
The boats bumped ashore, cutting him off. James scrambled out and made his way over to Sirius at a sort of half-walk, half-run that gave the impression that he had been stung by a bee, but was also weighted down with two tons of cement. Sirius ogled at him.  
  
"What in hell were you on about?" he asked. "You know I don't like gum."  
  
James suddenly felt very embarrassed. He looked down at his feet.  
  
"Let's just say that Miss Evans is much too clever for her own good."  
  
Sirius almost collapsed with laughter. In between fits of giggles he managed to get out a statement. "Oh, is she! I... don't even...(snort), want to... ask what she... (gasp), did!" He wiped tears of mirth from his eyes.  
  
"Good," said James, "because it's not worth relating. I'll tell you one thing though, Sirius. This isn't the end of this." He stared at Lily, who was talking animatedly to another girl a few feet away.  
  
"Oh, I have no doubt James," replied Sirius, following James's gaze. "I have no doubt."  
  


***

  
"Um, excuse me..."  
  
Lily turned around. A girl getting out of one of the last boats waved to her. She had long dark hair that went down to the middle of her back in two thick plaits and skin that looked like coffee with a little bit of creamer in it. Her braids swung back and forth behind her as she jogged toward Lily.  
  
"Yes?" she said.  
  
"You wouldn't happen to have a handkerchief, would you?" the girl asked. "I sort of got to... um, shake hands with that squid thing and I think I have slime on my hand now." She held up her hand for Lily to see.  
  
Lily fumbled through her pockets and produced a handkerchief out of one. "Here," she said. "Why exactly were you shaking hands with it?"  
  
"Well," said the girl, taking the handkerchief, "I didn't really _mean_ to or anything. I was trailing my hand in the water and I swear I felt a tentacle slide over it. Slimy as all get out. Not exactly pleasant." She made a face. "Oh no," she said, staring down at the handkerchief, now smeared with slime the color of mud and purple paint. "I'm so sorry. I ruined it."  
  
Lily smiled at her. "That's okay. My mum made me pack about five hundred in the first place. You can have that one, and I'll give you 50 others to boot if you like." They both laughed a little.  
  
The girl smiled and stuck out her non-slimy hand. "I'm Rajni," she said.  
  
Lily shook it. "I'm Lily. It's nice to finally meet a girl around here." She told her all about the day, about getting left at the station and hitting Avery in the nose, about riding with the boys in the train, and about James trying to trick her in the boat. They slowly made their way towards the school behind everyone else as she talked. Rajni was a good listener, gasping and laughing in all the right places. She was especially impressed by the fact that Lily had made James nearly jump ship.  
  
"How did you know he was trying to trick you?" she asked.  
  
"Oh, that was sort of just a logical thing," Lily told her. "He was mad at me before, right? So when he just out of the blue started trying to make pleasant conversation, things seemed kind of out of place. But you know what," she looked at Rajni. "I still don't know what the sorting is. Do you?"  
  
"No," said Rajni, "but I guess we're going to find out soon enough."  
  
  
  
  
"So, when I call your name, please come an sit on the stool. You will then try on the hat, and it will say where you go. Once you have been sorted you are to sit at the appropriate table. And please, the rest of you, hold your applause till the end, alright?" The witch, who appeared to be in her mid-twenties and wore small square spectacles, finished her speech and turned to retrieve a scroll from the table behind her.   
  
James's jaw practically hit the floor. "A hat?" he asked Sirius "A singing _hat?!?_ That _couldn't_ be it."  
  
"But that's what it looks like," Sirius whispered back. "Well, at least we don't have to do anything hard."  
  
James glared at him.  
  
Sirius hid a smile and looked straight at him. "You really thought she knew what it was, didn't you? Oh look, there's no use in getting all worked up about it now. We still have a task to do." They both looked up to the front of the hall.  
  
"Adamson, Jacob."  
  
A boy with flyaway blonde hair stumbled up to the front. He sat down on the stool.  
  
There was an audible pause as all talking, whispers, and giggles in the hall abruptly ceased. The air filled with more than a little nervous tension, provided mostly by the new first years.  
  
Quite suddenly, a slit directly above the brim opened, and in its slightly rusty voice, the hat said:  
  
"Hufflepuff!"  
  
Cheers from what James thought must be the Hufflepuff table rent the air. The witch who had told them all not to clap seemed very annoyed, but she never did anything more than look fiercely at the Hufflepuffs.  
  
The sorting went on in this way for the next twenty minutes or so. Sirius was called next, and the hat waited only a fraction of a second before declaring him a Gryffindor. James cheered for him along with the older house members. Next came "Borsten, Jane", then "Caldwell, Randall" (both of Ravenclaw), then "Dursten, Maxwell" (Slytherin), and so on and so forth. Hard as James prayed when she stepped up, Lily was soundly declared a Gryffindor by the hat. Then Farnsworth, Fawcett, Hillman, Iglesias, etc, etc. Remus soon came up, and walked off a Gryffindor too. James thought he looked a little shaken. McCauley, Mitcham, and Noonan (Gryffindor, Slytherin, Hufflepuff) all came and went. James cursed a little under his breath when the girl he'd seen Evans walking with, "Mittal, Rajni" became a Gryffindor. He wasn't really looking forward to having to deal with someone who was completely on _her_ side. He hoped she was the quiet, reserved type; someone who didn't like confrontations. Not that he had the slightest doubt she wasn't, but hope's a nice thing to have.  
  
"Oppenheimer, Daniel", "Oppenheimer, Nancy", "Pal, Joshua".  
  
"Pettigrew, Peter." Around four seconds of a pause, then:  
  
"Gryffindor!"  
  
For some reason, James was a little suprised. He'd thought Peter was more of a... well, not a Gryffindor in any case. "Oh well," he thought, "maybe he has some qualities we don't know about."  
  
"Potter, James."  
  
His name. James felt his heart drop into his stomach. Up until now, he hadn't had a doubt he'd be a Gryffindor. Now he wasn't as sure. All of the people he'd sat with on the train, as well as a few others, had turned out to be Gryffindors. What if there was some sort of limit? Would they just stick him in Hufflepuff because his name was at the end of the alphabet? That didn't seem fair. He walked slowly to the stool and sat down.  
  
The hat plopped down on his head, squishing his ears a bit. The material was heavy, like wool, but not as scratchy. And the second it touched him, it felt like there was someone else in his head.  
  
"Oh my, now isn't it just another Gruffydd?" the voice said. "Not as many as there used to be. Well, don't suppose we could put you anywhere else but _Gryffindor!_  
  
The last word rang in his ears. He felt the hat lifted off his head. Across the hall he saw the Gryffindor table clapping and hooting. He walked over and sat down next to Sirius. "What an ordeal," he thought. "Being read from the inside. I shouldn't like to do it again any time soon. Still, kind of interesting." He settled himself down on the bench and turned around so he could watch the next person go under the hat.  
  


***

  
"Ugh, soo full." Lily watched as the remaining food in the serving dishes disappeared as if by magic. "_By_ magic," she thought. Getting used to this was going to take a while.  
  
"Me too," said Rajni, laying her hands on her stomach. "I never saw so much food in one place in my life."  
  
"I'd hope not," said Lily. "You'd be as big as a house if you saw it too often."  
  
All around them people started to stand up and head out of the room. Lily and Rajni got up and walked into the entrance hall. They found a group of Gryffindors following a prefect up the stairs and trailed behind, trying to remember the way up as they went. Finally, they came to a hallway with a large group of people milling around.  
  
"Hey Paul, did anyone tell you the password?" someone called to their leader from the end of the hall. "I never got it." Even as the speaker stepped out of the crowd Lily could tell who she was. Rajni's yell only served to confirm.  
  
"Sandya!" Rajni called out. She ran forward and hugged the older girl fiercely around the waist. "I never saw you at the feast! Where were you?"  
  
Sandya Mittal smiled and pried her sister off. "I had to run to town and get some things for Professor Flitwick. I only got back 10 minutes ago, so I just ate in the kitchen real quick and came up here. "  
  
Lily was quite amazed by the two of them. They looked like identical twins born 5 years apart. However, where Rajni's hair was braided tightly down her back, Sandya's was loose and floated in a soft black sheet enclosing her shoulders.  
  
"Isn't she great?" whispered Rajni as Sandya went to talk to the prefect who'd led them up the stairs. "She's a fifth year and a prefect. I haven't seen all summer 'cause she's been here working at the school on all kinds of stuff."  
  
"Edelweiss, I think," they heard the prefect Paul say behind them. Sandya maneuvered her way back through the crowd to a portrait of a very fat woman in a pink dress hanging on the wall. She looked square at the painting and said the password.  
  
To Lily's suprise, the woman in the painting looked right back at her, winked, and said, "That's the one dear." The painting swung out to reveal a little hole in the wall.  
  
The older students were far from amazed though, and began systematically filing inside. Lily and Rajni climbed through and emerged in a large round room. There were overstuffed chairs and wooden tables everywhere, and a fire was lit in the big hearth on the wall. Sandya saw them staring around and came back over to them.   
  
"Like the common room, eh?" she asked. "It's pretty nice. Really warm in the winter. The girls' dormitories are up there." She pointed to some stairs opposite them. "I'd go get some sleep if I were you two. Tomorrow's going to be another big day." She smiled a last time at them and went off to a group of chairs by the fire to sit with some of her friends.   
  
The two of them started off across the room. As they mounted the stairs, Lily took one last look around the common room, and at Sandya, Rajni's own big sister, sitting by the fire. "Yeah Rajni," she said, "I bet she is pretty great."  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
There you have it. Chapter 2 is done. It certainly took long enough. Oh well, it _was_ a long chapter. I hope it wasn't so long that everyone stopped reading in the middle. Hopefully things will go a little faster now, since we've got a lot of mandatory stuff out of the way. I've got some great ideas for all these people I've created. Also, thanks loads to the two people who reviewed the first chapter, Revti and PepsiAngel. I hope there are more reviews for this one, but the two I got were both wonderful and I wouldn't trade that for a hundred mediocre ones. See you guys later,  
  
Adrian  
  
P.S.- And remember, every time you don't review, I go one step closer to writing nothing but crappy slash the rest of my FFN days. 


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